MD House UNANIMOUSLY rejects Diebold touch-screen voting machines

Linda Schade and the Takoma Park-based TrueVoteMD have really done an amazing job on this issue. they even persuaded Ehrlich to reverse himself and support paper ballots. the power of collective action at its finest.

It’s not even the non-recountable that’s the problem, its that most of these digital things leave the voter completely unable to verify that what is recorded is their original intent. If for some crackpot reason they wanted to have a digital system that printed a little something that was then submitted that would be fine. But a system that generates a ‘receipt’ like many people call for doesn’t meet that criteria. All that does is create TWO chains to get to a solution rather than one which is reversable AND reproducable.

The whole issue is moronic anyway; we should be switching to systems that take longer to complete, not less time. The idea of a 12 hour voting period should be killed and buried. For 2004 Florida had a lot of success with ‘early voting’ and if they can get something right you know it’s easy. We’d also eliminate the East-coast effect where people in earlier time zones alter their behavior because of early reporting from us over here on the correct coast.

i also would strongly support early voting. when i lived in texas, they allowed early voting for several days (not sure how many exactly). among other things it encourages increased voter turnout because it makes it easier for people who have trouble making it to the polls on election day because of transportation issues, work schedules, or other hurdles. the early voting locations were usually in places much more convenient that normal polling places — malls, supermarkets, etc.

This is great news and here’s hoping Virginia follows. Our city didn’t get touch screens, but did get digital (scroll-wheel) machines. I volunteered at the polls at the last election (VA Governor et al.). The most complaints I heard were from older folks who did not feel at all comfortable with the new machines. Also, some of the longer names ran off the screen on the verification screen, making people concerned. And of course, the lack of printed confirmation/paper-trail.